Have you seen this creature?

A team of Clemson and the University of South Carolina aquatic scientists need your help.

They are looking into reports of fresh sightings of a creature they call the Lake Murray Monster.

The creature has been described as large, longnecked, and with one or more humps protruding from the water.

Reports of the creature have varied.

“Murray the Monster” is the nickname for the reclusive beast that has lured spellbound tourists to Lake Murray.

Photographs and sonar readings have been disputed as possible hoaxes.

The scientific community regarded Murray as a phenomenon without biological basis.

They called the sightings “hoaxes, wishful thinking and misidentification of mundane objects.”

But a spate of recent sightings has forced the scientific community to reconsider.

They are offering a $100 reward for the 1st photograph of the creature and where exactly on the lake it was spotted.

Murry does not appear to be dangerous and may even like people.

Murray was reported as recently as March this year.

Lake Murray historian Harman Fox Shealy reported seeing it near Bomb Island last Tuesday.

“The creature disported itself, rolling and plunging for fully a minute, its body resembling that of a whale with a long neck and serpent-like head,” he said.

“I feared he might swamp my boat. But he seemed friendly.”

A second report came from part-time journalist W. Wingard Wessinger who reported seeing it near the dam at Dreher Shoals.

“It was circling the towers having a good time,” Wessinger said.

She said it appeared to be a large “beast” or “whalelike creature swimming in the water” that she saw while she and her husband John were driving across the dam about 7:15 am Wednesday.

How the creature got into the lake is a mystery the scientists hope to solve.

Some speculated it may have come into the lake downstream from Newberry.

If you have a photo of it, please email it to us at ScoopBellune@yahoo.com.

Cell phone camera photos are sufficient.

If you are still reading this, please let us remind you that today is April Fool’s Day.

That’s a day made popular by hoaxes like this.